Talat Mahmood

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Talat mahmood
Talat mahmood

Talat Mahmood (February 24, 1924 -- May 9, 1998) was an Indian Bollywood singer and actor. He was a recipient of Padma Bhushan. He was famous for his ghazals.

Born in Lucknow, Talat Mahmood was one amongst six children. He showed musical talent at an early age and started singing on the All India Radio at the age of 16. Later, for a short period of time Talat studied music at the Morris School of Music. This famous school also produced such alumni as fellow-singer Mukesh and the music-composer Roshan. Veteran music-composer Anil Biswas also taught music for a while here.

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[edit] Early days

In 1944 came the hit "Tasveer teri dil mera behela na sakegi". The song was an overnight sensation. Talat made cameo appearances and starred in about 16 movies, for both the Calcutta Film Industry (hub of the 1940s) and Bollywood. The 3 movies in which he starred were regional hits in Calcutta. But the real fame and fortune lay in Bollywood. His big break came with the song "Ae dil mujhe aisi jagha le chal jahan koi na ho" composed by music-composer Anil Biswas for the soundtrack of the movie "Arzoo". The song was a smash-hit and ensured the box-office success of the movie.

[edit] Singing career

Talat was a niche singer, and his focus was "ghazals" and light romantic ballads.

[edit] Movie career

Talat was a handsome man and a good singer, which prompted movie producers to try him as an actor. Most of his movies as an actor were light-weight fluffies produced on a shoe-string budget.

[edit] Decline

The advent of rock-n-roll in the late 1950s sidelined singers like Talat. As long as he was top box-office draw, the movie producers insisted on including his songs in their movies. Talat's velvety vocals posed a special challenge to the music-composers, most of whom leaned towards the deep baritones of Mohammad Rafi and Mukesh. When Talat's movies started flopping, there were no incentives any more to utilize his voice. The resultant demise of his movie career led to the decline of his singing career. At the same time, the social changes and happiness brought about by increasing prosperity in India meant that weepy "ghazals" and heart-rending ballads were not popular any more. Talat continued to record good songs, but less in number. His last soundtrack recording, in 1985, is the song "Mere Shreek-e-Safar", a duet sung with Miss Hemlata, from the movie "Wali-e-Azam" composed by Chitragupta and written by Ahmed Wasi. Talat sang about 800 songs in his long career.

[edit] External links

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